of Life only, as it is the Body of Christ, who gave it to us with this intention, that it should be spirit and life to us. If it have nothing nutritive, why should it be expressed by food? But there are too many amongst us, who, professing themselves to be wise, and to see farther than others, take away from us all the inward and vital part, and leave us nothing but the husks of religion. All the rest, they say, is a deception, of which rational men see nothing. But I say, that if our religion be any thing, it is a communication, restored and kept up between the Spirit of God and the spirit of men. If the Gospel be true in its promises, something is now done, whereby man becomes possessed of that eternal life which he shall never lose : but the new scheme of formality takes all this away, and renders it impossible. To talk of life and spirit to such men, is, in their estimation, to cant; but in ours, it is to cast pearls before swine, who trample them under their feet. Spiritual things are real, though invisible. God is not seen; the soul of man is not seen; what acts upon it is not seen; therefore it is truly said of us, that we walk by faith, and not by sight; so that without faith we see nothing; we know nothing; we receive nothing; we are nothing; and the whole Gospel is no better than a dream. But this is learning; this is reason; which wisely admitting but what it sees, loses all the benefits of Christianity. When we affirm that spiritual things are real, it may be added, that nothing else is so; the whole world, and all things therein, are but shadows of things eternal; and like a shadow shall pass away when they have answered a temporary purpose.

OLD TESTAMENT.

Too many mistakes are current amongst us in regard to the Old Testament; without which, the New never was and never will be understood. From the beginning of the world, life was revealed to man through Jesus Christ, the promised seed. The religion which God gave, was a religion of expectation; always proposing something not yet to be seen, but to be believed; and why? because without Faith it is impossible to please him. All religion without this is vain; and, as the Apostle assures us in the eleventh chapter to the Hebrews, ever was. For this, our father Abraham lived as a stranger upon earth, looking for a better state, and a better life. On this account only, God is called his God now he is dead, and though dead he still liveth. The law, which came after, was added to this faith, not to destroy it, but to preserve it; by severing, securing, and as it were shutting up, the people of God from the company of idolaters. It is therefore false and dangerous to teach, that the Old Testament had not the promise of life, because the law had it not. The law could not have it; for the promise being already given to faith, the law could neither give it nor take it away. Yet the law answered a great purpose; its passovers, and sacrifices, and baptisms, had so near a relation to the Gospel in sign and figure, that it was a schoolmaster unto Christ; and its elements were so plain, that children might understand the design of them, when it was shown how Christ at his coming had fulfilled them. Faith has been the religion of man, and the trial of man, ever since the fall of Adam, and will be to the end. For the want of it, the Jews fell into a blindness of

heart, which the conceit of worldly wisdom and the lust after worldly power never fail to produce. But this is no proof that they had not the example of their father Abraham constantly before their eyes; which, as Jews, they were called to understand and follow.

IDOLATRY.

The design of the law, as I said before, and as divines well know, was to keep the people of God separate from heathen idolaters. The reason of this is manifest, and the rules for keeping up the separation were so strict, that they operate on the Jews to this very day; who still hold all the wisdom of idolatry in abomination. But this has not been the case with us Christians; we have not been so zealous and careful in this matter as we ought to have been. At the first publication of the Gospel, the partition between Jew and Gentile was broken down for the salvation of the Gentiles; but about the time of the Reformation, at what is called the revival of learning, it was again broken down in another manner, for the corruption of Christians; when, under the name of learning, a flood of heathen books broke in upon the Christian world: and it has been the pride of some men's hearts, and the labour of their lives, to read them continually and indiscriminately. Greeks and Romans were certainly masters of expression and composition, and attained in a high degree to that wisdom of words which they were ever seeking after. For this wisdom we apply to them; but we take their pride, their licentiousness of sentiment, their error of principle, and sometimes even the vilest of their idolatry, along with it. From the two great authors of antiquity, Homer and Virgil, sacred with scholars, pick out all the idolatry, and lay it by itself; then look at it, and see what frightful,

what abominable stuff, what absurd blasphemy, we tolerate and swallow down, for the sake of the poetry with which it is dished up; but, alas! the charge of blasphemy will be to those who dare to speak against it. From Heathens we have sucked in that haughty spirit of independence which disdains all superiority. In Scripture it is called Belial; let it loose, and it will soon drive the world to madness and ruin, as it does at this time. Show me an angel of heaven, who has a single grain of this spirit in his composition, and then I will believe there may be some good in it. From Heathens we have gathered that fungus of literature, that doctrine of Bedlam, the majesty and sovereignty of the people. "Had it not been for them, Christians had never been so weak as to believe that the visionary liberty which is setting the world on fire, is the great object in society, the blessing of human life. From them we learned, that no nation, with a King over them, can be free, though it be Solomon or Augustus; in consequence of which, we see men falling under a multitude of tyrants, all bloody-minded, all thieves, and not one of them responsible. O miraculous infatuation! Christians can never be so foolish, but by infection from Heathens. And how is the evil to be corrected? for it is now as profane to scruple heathen books, as it once was to admit them. If a man speak against Heathens, he affronts Christians; and with as little peril he may write against the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Learning is now a very different thing from what it was formerly. When joined with good principle and the fear of God, it turned a good man into a great man; but if joined with error and ungodliness, as is now too frequently the case, it turns a scholar into a ruffian; and of two men who are both equally wicked, he that is the more learned (as learn

ing is now) will be the more noxious animal of the two. I love Greek; I admire genius; I honour science; but, supposing man to be made for another world, I know it is above all to be able to say, Lord I am not high-minded; for life is short and vain, eternity is before us, God is to be our judge. If our learning be such as leads us astray from God, and turn an irresistible judge into an enemy-away with it all; the humble ploughman who says his daily prayers, is the more useful subject, the happier man, and will soon be the greater.

HUMAN AUTHORITY.

Though all human authority, as such, is dangerous, and often fatal, we are always disposed to follow it; and we have warning of this in the Gospel; " If another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive." The reason of this does not lie very deep; we give honour with the hope of receiving it; vanity is the passion which is first awake in man, and is seldom at rest before his last sleep. When we magnify another, we are providing reputation to ourselves; for if the world allow him to be great for what he thought, it will allow us to be so likewise, for thinking as he did, and perhaps on no other condition. On which consideration, no man shews real humility and fortitude so much, as when he dares to follow an authority which the world does not follow. Blessed is he (said Christ) that shall not be offended in me; he will see how I am received by the world, and if he can stand that trial, he is a happy man, and entitled to a blessing. Christ, though the light of the world to those that have eyes, was attended with no glare, to invite and attract admiration; but if the world put a book into your hand, you are apprised in the first place, how great the au